Papelbon blows sixth save, spoils Hamels’ best outing of the year

The Phillies lost their fourth straight series Thursday 2-1, despite a stellar outing from Cole Hamels. The Phillies held a 1-0 lead entering the ninth, but Jonathan Papelbon blew the save, allowing two runs in the inning en route to his sixth blown save of the season.

Hamels brilliant start wasted

Cole Hamels tossed eight shutout innings, but received a no decision in the game. (AP)

Cole Hamels churned out his best start of the season on Thursday night. The lefty held his opponent scoreless for the first time this year, tossing eight strong innings in which he scattered seven hits and struck out five. It was the third time in his last five starts that he has gone eight innings, after accomplishing that feat just twice in his first 18 starts.

Hamels also delivered the only run for the Phillies in the game in the fifth when his two out single off Matt Cain drove home Laynce Nix to put the Phillies ahead.

But Hamels started was wasted on just three batters into the ninth inning. Papelbon allowed singles to Hunter Pence, Brett Pill and Roger Kieschnick, promptly blowing his sixth save of the year. Those six blown saves are the second most in all of baseball. He then allowed another run, which put the Phillies behind by one.

Offense slow yet again

The Phillies managed just the lone run on seven hits, and squandered several chances to score. They were just 2-for-7 with runners in scoring position in the game, and one of those hits did not even translate to a run.

Perhaps the most frustrating blown scoring opportunity came in the ninth, when the Phillies had the bases loaded with nobody out. It would not have even taken a hit to tie the game or even to win it. But Nix and Carlos Ruiz flied out and could not get the run home, and Erik Kratz grounded into a fielders choice to end the game.

Up next…

The Phillies will play host to the Atlanta Braves tomorrow looking to win their first series since before the All-Star break. Right-hander Ethan Martin (11-5, 4.12 ERA in AAA) will make his major league debut, and he will be opposed by Kris Medlen, who is 7-10 with a 3.74 ERA. First pitch is at 7:05.

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74 Comments

I think it was Nix who flied out. Speedster D Young reached on an error. Either way we have to be in the bottom five for hitting with the bases loaded, especially when there aren’t any outs. Hoping Martin has a solid outing tomorrow.

did the writer even watch the game. The bases were loaded with no outs in the 9th. On two errors and a hit batsman. They are hard to watch. I bet espn is happy they put this team on prime time. If we cant trade any of these guys can we please just release them.

Uh…yea. I am with you now about getting rid of Pap. After his post game comments last night, I cringe at seeing him in another game. Unfortunately I’m going to the game tomorrow – maybe we will have a blowout win. LOL

To me, the reasons last night’s game hurt are (1) Hamels deserved the win and (2) the continued decline of our overpaid, loud-mouthed closer who becomes harder and harder to trade. People (wrongly) attach a lot of meaning to a pitcher’s W-L record, so it hurts to see Hamels pitch so well and not get a W if only for his own psyche and to reduce the amount of criticism I read about his season. Now, I really don’t care about a pitcher’s W-L record nor about what the fans think of said pitcher and I am encouraged that Hamels has rebounded and has his ERA down to 3.87 and it’s 3.32 following his disastrous first 2 starts of the season. For comparison purposes, Hamels’s 3.87 ERA is 0.70 < the 7-6 Matt Cain's ERA and the exact same as the 12-5 Lance Lynn's ERA.

@Johanna- The guy is like poison ivy, he bothers you and you just can’t make him go away. Again last night with the missed spots, I used to count- 60-70% misses, now he’s got Ruiz so crossed up that he doesn’t seem to know what’s coming. If there was an excuse for not trading Chooch as many wanted to do, that’s it. They need someone capable of catching Papelbon.

@hk- Agreed, and more frustrating is the fact that Hamels had to create the only run he got. So if he’s pitching great and producing the only run, you’d think that maybe, just maybe after a max effort like that, Paps could give the guy a break and close out the damn game.

Mitch Williams was on WIP this morning and he was asked if Papelbon had “lost” it and Williams said he hasn’t. He just needs adrenaline in order to pitch well. If only Cole Hamels would have know that! Perhaps Charlie should put in someone else if it’s not an adrenaline moment. I cannot believe this guy!!

That and $1.09 will get you a Wawa coffee (typical of a Mitchie comment). If adrenaline was low last night, he’s got bigger issues. And by the way, despite last year when he struggled some, for his career he’s been as good in non-save situations as in save situations (doesn’t apply to last night, but speaks to pitching without the adrenaline boost).

I’m sorry …but if you’re paid what Paps is being paid then you need to rely on a lot more than just adrenaline in order to do the job. And why wasn’t THIS game one of those “moments”?? A 1-0 lead at home and you can’t muster up enough adrenaline? Please.

The 9th inning was the condensed 2013 (and I guess 2012) Phillies. The 9th inning was horrible bullpen and terrible hitting with runners on base. Add a dash of Ryne Sandberg continuing to be the worst 3rd base coach in the league. And you have the worst Phillies game of the year.

On Sandberg, there is no defending last night’s play. With one out you can’t take that chance.

However most of his risky sends this year have been with two outs, when taking a chance and forcing the other team to make the play is a good gamble. The chance that the next batter will get the run home are somewhere south of 30%, so it makes sense to force the other team to make the play rather than strand an all-too-precious run on 3rd base, even if it means some runners get thrown out.

I have no reason to think he will be anything special as a manager (or much different from Manuel, for that matter), but his 3rd base coaching shows prudent risk taking, IMO.

I can understand if the guy isn’t a great 3rd base coach, but do you think you would do better?? He makes a lot of gambles that don’t work but whose to say if he doesn’t send those runners that they would score on the next guys base hit?? Highly unlikely this is the same team that loads the bases with no outs and can’t score one run, poor Sandburg has to be aggressive and send anyone he can when they get to third cause that’s the only chance they have to score….

When I watched the Martinez play I honestly thought he was gonna score until I realized that was francouer throwing the ball, he’s got a cannon… and Sandburg should know that, but he might have felt that was there best chance to score, who knows…

And it’s not Sandburgs fault that this team sucks and can’t score, lets not pile the blame on him…

Chooch eventually did run. But it took a few seconds. Cain left the mound and threw to first and the run down to begin for Chooch to run. Keep in mind, it was Cain and Hamels in the beginning- wasn’t exactly the fastest moving run down I have ever seen. Chooch should have ran the second Cain went after Hamels.

Phillies are tied for 2nd most outs at home with 14. That’s some horrible risk-taking on Sandberg’s part. Like Buttermaker mentioned, a few from last night weren’t even close. Some of these outs at home just look like piss-poor decision-making.

Context would shed some more light, but just the raw numbers alone tell us the Phillies/Sandberg have made some poor decisions trying to send runners home. Add in the fact that this Phillies team is also one of the worst offenders at making baserunning outs and it just is further evidence this team isn’t much good at anything.

To illustrate the point: let’s say there are 100 2-out situations throughout the year where Sandberg could decide to send the runner.

If he doesn’t send the runner, there is less than a 25% chance on average that the next hitter will get the run home (i.e. hits as a % of plate appearances). Let’s say the run scores 25 times, and the other 75 the inning ends with the runner stranded at third.

If he DOES send the runner, than the other team has to make the play to get him out: pick it up cleanly, transfer to the throwing hand, throw accurately, catcher grabs cleanly, and applies the tag. If the defense gets all of that right say 1/2 the time, then you have 50 runners thrown out at home, but you also have 50 runs scored.

If those 100 “sends” get the team 25 more runs, I certainly wouldn’t call them bad decisions.

A few thoughts about Ruiz and Sandberg: Ruiz can’t run until he’s certain that a rundown is in progress. If he goes too soon, the player with the ball simply throws home instead of to the 2nd baseman, and Ruiz, being slow, would be out. No player cares if a runner advances if he can prevent a run.

As far as Sandberg being a bad coach, I can’t say for sure. Being aggressive doesn’t always equal “bad.” But even if he IS bad at 3rd doesn’t mean he’d be a bad manager. The two have somewhat different job qualifications.

One more thing, if they had scored twice in the ninth as it appeared they would do, after the baseball gods gave them every possible break in the world, Papelbon would have earned his third win on a blown save.

I say there needs to be a rule change- pitchers that blow saves, or do not hold leads in earlier innings should never qualify for a win. I know that W-‘s and L’s are no longer the measure we are using to rate our pitchers as those are really team attributable things, but the fact is MLB still does count it, so at least we could do it sensibly and fairly.

If that game had been won in the ninth last night, give the win to Hamels- so what he was not in the game- He’s the one that got them there. “Psychotron” to borrow my friend Big Ed’s nickname, deserves nothing in situations like that.

Years ago, the official scorer could decide who to award the win to, and sometimes in a situation like you mentioned (blown save overcome by 9th inning heroices) the starter was given the win. In fact, I believe Denny McClain won one of his 30 games that way, or at least in a similar manner.

I’ve always wondered why that is no longer done. Obviously, a closer who blows it should never get the win. Especially if it’s that butthole Papelbon who refuses to alter his approach because he’s only giving up singles and not home runs and doubles. Just his postgame remarks should warrant his being benched, or sent down to work on his pitch selection. I don’t care what he’s paid, that attitude is not going to win ML games.

I think they changed the rules because of incentives in contract. You can’t have millions of dollars resting on the judgment of the official scorers. It’s easier if they just stick to the rules plain and simple.

Morris, if that’s therule, then it needs to be changed again. In a situation like Lefty describes, you’re robbing incentives from the starter and giving them to morons who blow saves. Who really deserves to get credit, a starter who might have contract incentives for victories or Cy Young votes (it’s rare when voters give the awards to people with poor W/L records) or do you give it to a closer, whose incentives and awards are usually based on saves and not wins? I think it’s pretty obvious, and the rules should reflect that.

LH bat off the bench, can field LF/RF/1B competently, and CF in a pinch. And while he hasn’t hit at all this year, his track record says he should eventually hit some. Is there anyone in particular you’d like to see instead?

Not that he did anything in his 2 day stint here to earn a longer look, but they should have kept Susdorf just to see what he can do. Nix has been terrible, is a FA at the end of the year, and I doubt they’re bringing him back, so why not give release Nix now and give Susdorf that time?

Susdorf, he has been a steady performer for the Phillies minor league teams. If they are not going to try moving Asche to the outfield they need to give Susdorf more of a chance. Other options could be free agents, Brennan Boesch or Grady Sizemore. Both are working on returning from injury but would be much better options than Nix.

Because RAJ gave him a 2-year contract before last season and RAJ is reluctant to admit another of his mistakes. RAJ probably fears that eventually, ownership will catch on to all of the mistakes that he’s made if he admits to them.

Sometimes two games is enough. There are other things caoches look at besides production. I’m reminded of when Casey Stengel was asked in Spring Training about two 22 year old prospects and what they might be like in 5 years. He replied that one, Ed Kranepool, had a chance to be a decent ballplayer, and the other had a chance to be 27.

I’ve watched a lot of ballgames, and while I’m no real scout, even I can usually tell who’s got a chance and who’s soon to be selling Lady Kenmores.

Pretty much this. The worst thing this team could do is win just enough games to finish in 11th worst place, meaning they wouldn’t get a protected draft pick next year. Just lose, and lose with vigor from here on out. #EmbraceTheTank

I could not agree more. Unfortunately, I fear that RAJ and Charlie are going to go all Doug Collins on us and hold onto and play Michael Young (in the role of Damien Wilkins) and Chooch in an effort to win as many games as possible on the theory that it’s easier to sell tickets coming off a 77-85 season than coming off a 72-90 season.

Serious question…why not? If you know that some short-term pain (if you consider a bad team losing meaningless games in August and September pain) should lead to some long-term gain (better draft position in every round and a protected 1st round pick), what’s wrong with hoping the team loses games, especially if those games are lost because they are allowing some youngsters to get their feet wet? I wonder how much better off the Eagles could be right now if they didn’t win their last 4 games in 2011 or how much better of the Sixers could have been if Doug Collins had played the young guys last year instead of Damien Wilkins and other veterans over the last ~20 games.

hk – Let me clarify. I’m all for playing the youngsters. See what we have and basically concede that the remainder of the year is a fact-finding mission. I get that and support that. Wholeheartedly. And if they lose they lose …then fine. But I don’t want it to be without them trying to win when they are on the field. Let the kids play and try to win. They’ll win some for sure but probably lose more. And that’s cool and supports the argument that Hogey suggested yesterday. I just don’t want them losing on purpose or being told to lose on purpose when they’re on the field just for draft pick’s sake. That would not be sending these kids the right message.

What Chuck A said makes sense to me as well. Sometimes you have to let athletes do what they do best- compete. Even when it’s not in your best interests, you can’t hold them back, you have to let them go full bore. If you don’t, you take the serious chance that the kids become the bad habits that you teach them. Then you’re in for 10 years of trying to turn the thing around instead of 2 or 3 even if you get the best picks.

Here’s a serious question that I really don’t know the answer to-

In basketball for instance, early first round picks mean everything to floundering teams, most are great players that help the team instantly. Obviously you don’t get instant help in the baseball draft, most take at least a year or two of seasoning. But how often do the first rounders have impact in baseball compared to other sports? Is it really worth tanking?

The issue with wanting them to lose games has more to do with the draft pick being protected if they sign a free agent who received a qualifying offer than it does with improving their draft position. Put differently, there’s little difference between having the 8th or the 9th pick in most drafts, but the difference between having the 10th and 11th picks is huge – and it’s even a little bigger this year because Toronto is going to pick in between the teams that finish 10th and 11th from the bottom.

I’m still uninterested this strategy until – let’s say maybe a week left in the season is left. If they are close then, okay, maybe play scrubs. For right now, just play the games and let the chips fall where they may. Also, there may be players they want to keep with contract incentives to meet that may make it unfair to sit them, that ruins attitudes going forward.

I’m not totally against the idea, I just feel it’s way too early. For instance, I was rooting for the Phils to allow Atlanta to win that final series in 2011. Tony LaRussa gave high marks to Charlie for sportsmanship, then came in here and booted a 102 win team out of the playoffs. I could have lived without LaRussa’s compliment if you know what I mean.

To add to that a little bit, the difference between drafting very high in the first round (say, top 10 or so) and below that is stark. You’re MUCH more likely to land a stud in the first handful of picks than you are in the middle of the first round and below.

(There’s more, I just don’t remember the other places I’ve read the studies)

So the benefit is two-fold. First, you have your first round pick protected, which means you can immediately go out and sign a qualified FA without losing your most valuable pick in the draft. This is important for a team like the Phillies that has a lot of money to spend to improve immediately, but also has a relatively thin minor league system and cannot afford to lose their first round picks.

Second, you have the added benefit of picking in a higher draft position which increases the likelihood that you end up drafting someone that turns into a contributing player.

So, in this sense, losing now benefits the Phillies in multiple ways and they can reap the benefits of this as quickly as next season. So lose now (although you don’t have to root for losses with vigor, I suppose. Regular rooting should probably suffice!)

My biggest gripe with this game was the postgame comments by Papelbon. He seems oblivious to the fact that his Ks are way down and he’s blown 6 saves. He instead insists that he’s okay because no one is hitting him hard so he doesn’t need to change his approach. He fails to realize that three singles can blow a save and four can cost a victory, or that even two hits coupled with a groundout or sac fly can allow a run to score. He fails to comprehend that if he still had strikeout stuff he could escape some of the jams he gets himself into with poor location or walks.

The man is a jerk. He’s always been a jerk. He claims he’s facing the facts when he opens his big mouth, but he certainly doesn’t when it comes to his own shortcoming. He only sees those of what he claims are the poorly positioned or badly fielding players and management’s supposed inability to build the team HE wants.

At this point I’d take a scrub, or a PTBNL, if someone would take him and some portion of that salary off our hands.

How I prayed they’d trade him back in late May, early June when Valverde was still struggling, and he still had some perceived value. It was clear that he wasn’t hitting spots and the velocity was going, but I don’t think the world knew yet because he was still saving games. I hold out hope, but I think it’s too late now.

I’d take absolutely nothing and still pay most of his contract. Those comments last night tell me that he’s not going to change anything. Besides, he’s a bleeping turd, and always has been.

I’ll admit that I tried not to care too much when they signed him because he was a proven closer, and even attempted to justify it out loud. But I mostly hated the signing because I never liked his personality. Even in Boston, his antics rubbed me the wrong way.

Now that his performance seems to be slipping, I really hate the signing. And with the attitude he took last night, I can see no adjustments, no admission of not producing, and no concern for his teammates. I might hold out hope, as you do, but I can’t after his clueless post game comments yesterday.

I think that Pap still has value to some team, honestly his performance and velocity drop could be from the team not doing well. Now before you go and attack me on this realize that Pap is one of those players that thrives on the adrenalin from pitching in the 9th and if he is not completely fired up he likely will not be as effective. He still has good numbers overall and is better closer than most in the league. I think that he would fit well in Arizona they need a closer and have a good deal of prospects. I would ask for Putz and prospects Jake Barrett and Evan Marshall. It would give the Phillies a replacement for Pap plus a $5M savings for next season and two young relief prospects. If the Phils do not get at least a couple prospects RAJ will not move Pap.

I know I am but if I am not then Papelbon will be wearing red pinstripes for the next couple of years. I have actually lowered my expectations, in my blog I wrote my predictions of where players may go and the expected return. I had the Phillies sending Pap and Lannan to Arizona for Putz, David Holmberg, Barrett and a PTBNL. But I was also in fire sale mode, everything must go (note I did have Lee staying in Philly).

I’m actually kind of glad they didn’t win the game in the bottom of the 9th, because he would have gotten the win and he didn’t deserve it. I wanted him to stew on blowing the game…course after his comments it sounds like he’s clueless.

What ever happened to “IF IT AIN’T BROKE, DON’T FIX IT”??? Why doesn’t Charlie take a hike along about the sixth inning and leave the game to those playing it??? Also, what is this 100 pitch thing all about… I’ll bet Charlie wouldn’t dare approach the mound if some of the real Phillies pitchers like Jim Bunning or Robin Roberts or Steve Carlton were pitching a shutout. They would’ve run his butt off the field.

Personally, my wife and I think the players should ante up and buy Charlie’s contract out. They couldn’t do any worse.